Every once in awhile, an actor will come out long after (of short after for some) a movie has released and confessed that their experience wasn’t so great. I’m sure several are already coming to mind– basically anyone who has ever worked on a David O. Russell production, right? Or Lars von Trier? But what about working with George Lucas on any of the STAR WARS films? Wait…it’s STAR WARS. That would be the dream of any child or adult to get two seconds in any STAR WARS film. But Terence Stamp does not have warm fuzzies looking back on his time as Chancellor Valorum in STAR WARS: EPISODE I- THE PHANTOM MENACE. He also doesn’t think much of Lucas as a director.
This is what Stamp told Empire Magazine:
“We didn’t get on at all. I didn’t rate him that much as a director, really. I didn’t feel like he was a director of actors; he was more interested in stuff and effects. He didn’t interest me and I wouldn’t think I interested him. I came all the way back from Australia to do it. I didn’t want to but my agent leaned on me and I wanted to meet Natalie Portman because I’d seen her in The Professional. And I did meet her and she was absolutely enchanting. But on the day I’m supposed to do my scene with her, for which I’d travelled halfway around the world, I said, ‘Where’s Natalie?’ And George says, ‘That’s Natalie,’ and points to a bit of paper on the wall. It was just boring.”
Don’t hold back about how you feel, Mr. Stamp. I think he’s a great actor, and he’s General Zod for crying out loud. I’m starting to think they should have a forum online for actors to rate/comment about their directors and vice-versa. That would be interesting.
With the selling off of LucasFilm, are we going to get more statements like this one?
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